Transport Past and Present Sorting

Year 2 HistoryTransport Through History3 pages

About this worksheet

The curator at the local transport museum has mixed up the labels. On this three-page Year 2 history sheet, pupils sort twelve vehicles into Transport from the Past (beyond living memory) and Transport Today. The list runs from a horse and carriage, a stagecoach and a penny-farthing to an electric car and a high-speed train. In Thinking Like a Historian, pupils name the hardest vehicle to sort and add one vehicle of their own to each column. The answer key accepts the bicycle in either column and gives sample answers. It follows the England National Curriculum for KS1 history.

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Curriculum objectives covered

Changes within living memory

โ€œChanges within living memory. Where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national lifeโ€

The sort sets old transport against what people use today. It does not ask pupils to look at change within the lifetime of people they know.

Events beyond living memory

โ€œEvents beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally [for example, the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight or events commemorated through festivals or anniversaries]โ€

Partly met. The past column is described as beyond living memory, but the sheet names vehicles rather than a single event such as the first aeroplane flight.

What's inside this worksheet

Transport: Past and Present

A museum curator with a clipboard and a short story about the mixed-up exhibition labels.

Vehicle Word Bank

Twelve vehicles, including a steam train, a sedan chair, a Victorian tram and a modern jet plane.

Museum Sorting Board

Two columns headed Transport from the Past and Transport Today.

Thinking Like a Historian

Pupils explain the trickiest vehicle to place, then add one past and one present vehicle of their own.

How teachers use it

Bicycle debate

Show a picture of a penny-farthing next to a modern bike and ask which column a bicycle belongs in. The key accepts either with a reason.

Washing line

After the sort, peg the six past vehicles on a washing line in rough date order and talk about how long ago each one was used.

Local link

If your town once had trams or a steam railway, use question 2 to ask pupils for a vehicle they have seen in old photos of the area.

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